News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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If you have contacted my office in recent years, you know that I pride myself in delivering personal responses to you. My office staff and I work very hard to make sure you receive prompt and detailed information related to your questions and concerns. Despite the high volume of communications my office receives, I still try to respond personally to each. Unfortunately, I was unable to respond personally to thousands of inquiries last month following Governor Inslee’s statewide mask and COVID vaccine mandates. In an effort to provide you w...
During the past 18 months, the pandemic has had significant impact on our lives. However, small businesses have the greatest impact on our livelihoods. Whether self-employed or the employer to dozens, small businesses are the engine that keep our economy and our communities running. They are the providers of goods and services; and, also the providers of incomes and sustenance. Being a small business owner is difficult even in the best of economic times, so to say small business ownership has been a challenge the past year and a half is an...
In recent years, the cost of solar energy has plummeted, and demand has escalated due to consumer support for clean energy and the value it adds to a property owner’s land and rural communities. However, in the U.S., solar energy provided less than 4% of the country’s electricity in 2020. Last week, the Biden administration announced a plan to procure 45% of the country’s electricity from the sun by 2050. However, the pathway to achieving the set goal will be up to Congress as the administration has only released a general outline for the p...
Myanmar (Burma) has its own way of storing gold. The Shwedagon Pagoda is one of the premier Buddhist temples in the world and dates back some 2,500 years. Here in the U.S. we think of things 200-300 years old as really old. Not there, nor in most of the world. This huge monument wears thousands of tons of gold, like a coat in cold weather. As if this isn’t rich enough, it has thousands of diamonds on its top, including one of over 70 carats. I like to think of myself as a contributor to the country’s wealth. While there, I patiently wat...
This September 11 remembrance fell at a time when America is bitterly divided. It is also a time when we are more acutely worried about where and when terrorists will strike next. Our hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan — the place where terrorists orchestrated the 9/11 carnage in New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville killing nearly 3,000 fellow Americans — was fresh in our minds. We needed words of reassurance again. We needed to be reminded of the way our country came together after 9/11 — an epilog — and a hopeful path forward—a prolog....
Sometimes, to stop fires, you have to start them. Democrats like President Biden often point to the West’s devastating wildfires as evidence of climate change, and while that’s certainly contributed to some of the events we are seeing unfolding across the country, it’s only part of the picture. The rest? Burdensome government regulations inhibiting proper forest management and “sue-and-settle” lawsuits that prevent any actionable plans from being implemented. In Central Washington, if you step outside today, you’re bound to be inundated b...
Remember way back at the beginning of the pandemic, about a zillion years ago, when all we knew is that it could be bad for a while, but then schools actually closed? That’s when we knew this was going to be inconvenient as hell and hoped it would not last too long. Back then, there was some limited discussion about whether it was possible to come up with a vaccine, or whether that was even the right approach. The majority of scientists, and just as importantly politicians, decided the new coronavirus was probably lethal enough that taking t...
It’s that time of year again when we dust off our boots and compete against our neighbors in all sorts of animals, crafts, cooking and what-not contests at the Okanogan County Fair. The Okanogan County Fair Advisory Committee would like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to join us at our 74th annual fair, Sept. 9-12. As we prepare to celebrate, we reflect on the many challenges we have faced leading up to this year’s event. From wildfires to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are “Okanogan County Strong.” Like many, we look forward to the fai...
On August 31, 2021, I injured myself when a 400-pound welding table fell off a cable, knocking me down, causing a severe laceration to my right leg requiring surgery. I have lived in this community since 1969 and have had limited encounters with our local hospital. I had formed a somewhat passive opinion of the emergency medical care available, however this injury gave me a new and more definite perspective. From admittance to discharge, my care was excellent and complete from the all members of the medical team. I was so impressed with the...
I’ve seen a mountain of big attractions. But little things do matter, and sometimes they are embedded in your memory. A few years ago, I took on a consulting job in Kodiak, Alaska. The owner wanted to clean up some of her business practices so she could sell her newspaper. I made several trips there and twice my wife accompanied me. On one trip, I had the weekend free and decided to fly to Anchorage and see a healthcare practitioner who lived just up the block from us in Bothell. She showed us around and we made a drive to Denali National P...
September 11, 2001: a day that no American who lived to see will ever forget. I was recently asked about where I was that day, and I remember it keenly, deeply. I think it’s a question every American has an answer to — a moment engraved in time. Since it was early September, it was right in the middle of hop harvest. My cousin and I were working to unplug the picking machine, a more-than-common occurrence for hop farmers, when his wife called, crying. Those first moments that morning were ones of disbelief. Then, justification — it must have...
On August 31, 2021, I injured myself when a 400-pound welding table fell off a cable, knocking me down, causing a severe laceration to my right leg requiring surgery. I have lived in this community since 1969 and have had limited encounters with our local hospital. I had formed a somewhat passive opinion of the emergency medical care available, however this injury gave me a new and more definite perspective. From admittance to discharge, my care was excellent and complete from the all members of the medical team. I was so impressed with the...
A little-noticed initiative by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, and six other senators would boost local jobs, accelerate sales, and improve economies. The Local Journalism Sustainability Act, S. 2434, is designed to help local news media support their newsgathering missions. One provision goes far beyond offering aid to community newspapers, local news websites and other news-gatherers. It would help small businesses to dig out of the economic doldrums by supporting their advertising costs in local news outlets, which in turn will help...
Our daughter Kim is in the thick of Louisiana storms again. Five years ago, their home in Denham Springs was flooded, with up to four feet of water in the lower floor. They had experienced 30 inches of rain in a couple day’s time. That’s about three years of rain around here. She and her husband, Bruce, had to strip wallboard and insulation from the lower floor and replace the floor, appliances and furniture. It was a three-month long project. Kim and Bruce live on the river, and with that amount of rain the river overflowed its banks and the...
Before we examine what scientists are expressing about our upcoming 2021-22 winter, I want to share a recap of 2021 summer weather data. Let’s take it month by month. June — six days over 100˚F, 16 days over 90, high temperature of 113.8˚F and 0.49 inches of precipitation. July — four days over 100, 14 days over 90, high temperature of 104.1 and 0.08 inches of precipitation. August — five days over 100, 10 days over 90, high temperature of 104.1 and 0.42 inches of precipitation. For the three...
As Washington state and the rest of the world continues to process through the COVID pandemic, governors throughout our nation — Republicans and Democrats — have utilized their offices and authorities in a variety of ways. In Washington state, the Emergency Powers Act (RCW 43.06.220) authorizes the governor to declare emergencies and issue orders in response to those declared emergencies. The original version of this law was enacted in 1969, at a time when likely no one would have anticipated any emergency lasting multiple years. On Feb...
It is not surprising that COVID-19 which ravaged the world was disastrous for our country’s economy. Millions died from COVID complications; offices, stores and factories closed, and people were forced to quarantine at home. The good news this Labor Day is vaccines are working and readily available. As a result, our job market has dramatically improved. People are eating out, shopping and traveling. Our economy is healing. Vaccines were developed and deployed at “warp speed” under President Donald Trump. Having Americans inoculated as quick...
The video portraying an American Air Force plane moving on a runway with a mob of Afghani citizens running beside the aircraft and some on the outside of the aircraft presented an embarrassing image of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. The fast collapse of the American sponsored Afghani regime is equally distressing. Young readers may not recall, but the U.S. experienced a humiliating final exit from Vietnam in 1975. Photos portrayed desperate people climbing to the top of the U.S. Embassy attempting to get aboard departing helicopters. Pe...
Here is a small example of some of the history of the climate change theosophy. “It is already too late for the world to avoid a long period of famine. Paul Ehrlich said the time of famines is upon us and will be its worst and most disastrous by 1975. He said population of the United States is already too big, that birth control may have to be accomplished by making it involuntary; by putting sterilizing agents into staple food and drinking water and the Roman Catholic Church should pressure into going along.” — The Salt Lake Tribune, 11/17...
Life is full of changes, and they hit at an early age. I was born on a farm outside Palouse, and we didn’t have indoor plumbing. Our facility was located about 25 yards from the house and alongside our parking area. It was a two-hole outdoor toilet. I could never figure out why we had a two-hole toilet? I guess I never felt like I knew anyone well enough to sit there with another person beside me. We didn’t have toilet paper, only a Sears Roebuck catalog. You get the picture? One of my greatest fears is that I would fall in. Now nighttime and...
Throughout American history, the burden of keeping our great nation free and secure has largely fallen on the shoulders of the men and women bravely serving in our Armed Forces. The care we provide to our veterans reflects our gratitude for the courageous servicemen and women who selflessly risk their lives in the protection of others, and it is my responsibility to ensure that the federal government keeps its commitment to provide our veterans with the respect and highest level of care they deserve. I have had many opportunities to sit down wi...
When thinking of England’s fabled Sherwood Forest, the medieval images of Robin Hood and his band of archers and swordsmen hiding in the woods giving the Sheriff of Nottingham a hard time comes to mind. Who would envision a crew of young American oil workers concealed among the giant oaks drilling oil wells? However, the crude production from those wells was essential in helping fuel the D-Day invasion launched from English shores in 1944. Until Guy Woodward and Grace Steele Woodward published “The Secret of Sherwood Forest – Oil production in...
It’s time to play the blame game. Who exactly is at fault for the rapid collapse of Afghanistan? There are those who can’t see the similarities between this collapse and the one we saw in South Vietnam. I think it is a carbon copy! I know of a local serviceman who was on one of the last helicopters out. The French failed in Vietnam So we went in, and with 55,000 dead later, we barely got our people out before the full collapse. On my three trips to Vietnam I was shocked to see the streets full of fighting-age men and women who were content to...
Each year Americans throw away more than three billion batteries constituting 180,000 tons of hazardous material, and the situation is likely to get much worse as the world shifts to electric vehicles. Everyday-green.com reports more than 86,000 tons of single-use alkaline batteries (AAA, AA, C and D) are thrown away. They power electronic toys and games, portable audio equipment and flashlights and make up 20 percent of the household hazardous materials in our garbage dumps. Unlike composted waste, batteries are hazardous and contaminate our...
For the past 20 years, our men and women have served heroically in Afghanistan to protect both global security and the shared interests of our allies across the world. Now, President Biden risks making their sacrifices all for naught with his most recent display of failed leadership. Today, during an address from the White House, President Biden doubled down on his questionable approach and emphasized that he has no remorse for the human calamity we are seeing unfold. President Biden has failed the American people, the men and women in...